Social media shares have been circulating two comedy skits that feature Young Comedian, Emmanuella and Veteran Actor, Pete Edochie to raise awareness of reading through Wikipedia in Nigeria. It’s ironic that in Emmanuella’s video she is the little girl teaching and in the video featuring Pete Edochie—a man who is renowned for often dishing words of wisdom in movies—is the one being taught.

Riding on the back of Wikipedia’s mission to push for open Knowledge, the Wikimedia User Group Nigeria(WUGN), headed by acting president Olushola Olaniyan, have been creating student clubs for Wikipedia readers in Nigerian universities and weekly radio programs to explain Wikipedia. As part of the master plan, Eyitayo Alimi one of the Wikimedians says they are “bootstrapping and doing a whole lot. Organizing meetup events—at least once in a month, sometimes twice—working on partnership deals with media agencies both digital and print, ensuring we get spaces for events, inviting people for training, and following up to ensure they are retained within the community.” Including Eyitayo, Olushola invited four fellow volunteers (Sam Oyeyele, Blossom Ozurumba and Kayode Yusuf) as part of the “community marketing team” to join him and the foundation in creatively directing the video ads that just launched this september.

With internet access on the rise in even the innermost part of the country and approximately 190 million residents, Nigeria is the largest country in Africa. Consequentially, it’s target market for many consumer dependent businesses and organisations to profit and grow as they offer their services. Early this year, YouTube also kicked off a promotional strategy to gain more audiences on their platform through ads targeting the three major categories Nigerians often visit on Youtube: Football, Make-up and Music videos, in turn, prompting others to also open their own Youtube Channels for free. Similarly, online encyclopedia, Wikipedia is raising awareness for the platform in Nigeria amongst internet users and of course, targeting mostly the 60% of Nigerians who are school-aged and can use and improve the platform.

Raising awareness for Wikipedia in #Nigeria: a discussion with Nigerian Wikimedians. https://t.co/1PiiSdG5ZD pic.twitter.com/7gugF3XsTe

— Wikimedia Foundation (@Wikimedia) September 21, 2017

In Olushola’s words, “The video ads show a blend of characters between the old and young generations in Nigeria. It reflects our cultures, it shows that Nigerians are eager to learn new things, it shows that knowledge is not restricted by age.” 

Check out the comedy skits featuring Emmanuella & her uncle and Pete Edochie respectively via twitter below.

Featured Image Credit: Youtube/Wikimediafoundation “Emmanuella Goes To School”

Fisayo is a journalist in search of words. Tweet at her @fisvyo

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